How have we thought âthe bodyâ? How can we think it anew? The body of mortal creatures, the body politic, the body of letters and of laws, the âmystical body of Christââall these (and others) are incorporated in the word Corpus, the title and topic of Jean-Luc Nancyâs masterwork.
Corpus is a work of literary force at once phenomenological, sociological, theological, and philosophical in its multiple orientations and approaches. In thirty-six brief sections, Nancy offers us at once an encyclopedia and a polemical programâreviewing classical takes on the âcorpusâ from Plato, Aristotle, and Saint Paul to Descartes, Hegel, Husserl, and Freud, while demonstrating that the mutations (technological, biological, and political) of our own culture have given rise to the need for a new understanding of the body. He not only tells the story of this cultural change but also explores the promise and responsibilities that such a new understanding entails.
The long-awaited English translation is a bold, bravura rendering. To the title essay are added five closely related recent piecesâincluding a commentary by Antonia Birnbaumâdedicated in large part to the legacy of the âmind-body problemâ formulated by Descartes and the challenge it poses to rethinking the ancient problems of the corpus. The last and most poignant of these essays is âThe Intruder,â Nancyâs philosophical meditation on his heart transplant. The book also serves as the opening move in Nancyâs larger project called âThe deconstruction of Christianity.â